S J Watson’s (SJW) inspiration came from a man whose obituary he penned. The man had such bad epilepsy he had an operation to remove part of his brain which then impacted his memory to the degree that each day meant the start of production of new memories with no long term retention. M J McGrath (MJM) spent time in the high arctic in order to research her non-fiction work. Here she met a female polar bear hunter who became the inspiration for her half-white, half-Inuit protagonist Edie Kiglatuk.

Gordon Ferris (GF) took his inspiration from what became his title: The Hanging Shed. In these buildings condemned men were led from room to room to the ultimate place that delivered the end of their lives in post WWII Glasgow. Julia Crouch (JC) runs and listens to music at the same time. As she pounded the terrain down in Brighton, a Nick Cave song – The Boatman’s Call, inspired by his relationship with P J Harvey – threw up a question in her mind: how can such passion arise in your steady-Eddy, beloved husband?

East of Suez, West of Charing Cross Road by John Lawton from Agents of Treachery - commended Homework by Phil Lovesey from The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime Vol 8 - WINNERThe Dead Club by Michael Palmer & Daniel Palmer from First Thrills - third prize

12 June 2011

Fancy a break from the tennis? Or the rain? (The two so often arrive together here.)

London Review Bookshop World Literature Weekend, taking place 17-19 June, is the only UK festival to specialise in literature in translation. On the crime front there are two events that may be of interest:

Crime Fiction: Reading Scars - Behind crime fiction's gripping narratives, there often lies a more incisive portrayal of a society than can be found in more obvious commentaries; and it offers a way to confront ideas of good and evil in a shades-of-grey world, where simple moral certainties aren't so easy to find. Karin Alvtegen's psychological crime thrillers include Missing, which in 2001 won the Glass Key, the premier Nordic crime writing award, and Shadow and Betrayal. Håkan Nesser is also a Glass Key winner; his latest book to be translated into English is The Inspector and Silence, starring his detective Van Veeteren. The event will be chaired by Jakob Stourgaard-Nielson, Lecturer in Scandinavian Literature at UCL.

For Catalonia: Place of a Language, three very different writers come together to talk about how a besieged language can offer refuge, and how place, history and identity are knitted into that language. One of the authors taking part in this event is Teresa Solana, the award-winning author of two comic noirs, Not So Perfect Crime and A Short Cut to Paradise. Solana writes in Catalan and translates them into Spanish, and her novels are a blend of humour, merciless satire and detective thriller. Joining Solana on the panel is Ramon Llull Prize-winning novelist Najat El Hatchmi and Carles Casajuana, author and Ambassador of Spain to the UK. Barcelona-based literary translator Peter Bush is chair. This event takes place Friday 17 June at 2pm in the Stevenson Room at the British Museum.

Moving on, after hours on Friday 24 June, you could join in with an investigation at the National History Museum at 1900 where a body has been found in the museum’s garden. The NHM says:

Its identity is unknown and the killer remains at large. We need your help. Join us to put your detective skills to the test as a crime scene officer. At this unique, immersive evening event, you'll meet 3 of the Museum's forensic experts. Learn how they use their knowledge to assist the police and solve crimes. Find out tricks of their trade so that you can comb the crime scene, collect the evidence and process the clues. Then take your evidence to trial where real barristers, police officers and a judge will demonstrate just how important forensic evidence is to a verdict.

Highlights include:

collecting insect evidence in the garden crime scene with scientists Martin Hall and Cameron Richards, and 100s of live maggots

fingerprint collection and identification workshop

victim identification masterclass in the Attenborough Studio with Heather Bonney - learn how to identify sex, age and height by studying skeletal remains

a mock court case in the Museum's Flett theatre.

That is surely a most unusual way to unwind on a Friday evening. What a cracker! Follow the link for more details and booking.

30 May 2011

I can’t make it to the Hay Festival this year for various reasons. Today, @MarDixon posted up some pictures and one in particular reminded me what I was missing. This is so typically Hay:

The venues can be quite huge and packed to the edges. The audiences can be made up of all ages with many taking it very seriously, to the point of being unforgiving, but a little humour is never far away. When you look at this photograph you can understand that it might be good to be on stage and see a vast expanse of black only – until the lights kick in for questions at the end. A lot of talent and dedication goes into each event, much of it hidden and taken for granted by those who attend.

I wish them well, all of them, and hope to return in the future. For now, I am dealing with withdrawal symptoms but my ‘to do’ list is a major distraction. Until I saw that pic…

There is always a warm welcome at a gathering of crime fiction writers and devotees, and CrimeFest in Bristol is no exception. In its fourth year in 2011, to say CrimeFest is in full swing is not to do it justice, for it runs as you’d expect a piece of precision engineering to run. I hadn’t been for a couple of years and this year’s weekend had to be curtailed due to last minute work commitments, but I am so glad I went. Many congratulations to everyone who participated, those who organised and those who supported from Heffers/Blackwell’s with their dedicated bookselling, to the various sponsors of the event.

Surveying the programme alone, one thing is clear: CrimeFest has a commitment to presenting you with a broader range of authors than the Harrogate Theakstons Crime Writing Festival for which I am a regular and devoted attendee. There were author names with which I was not familiar; familiar names I had not read; and new names that both you and I will find beeping on our personal radars in years to come. So, let’s start with the new, and the point at which I joined proceedings, at Saturday morning’s first panel of the day for debut authors. This is a grouping close to my heart as one of the judges for the CWA’s John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger award and I was familiar with the work of the majority of the authors on this panel.

16 April 2011

The following is a copy of the various entries from the programme for this year, identifying the crime and thriller fiction authors. It’s a pretty impressive line up and Friday 3 June appears to be a very good day to be visiting. Some other events of interest follow at the bottom of this post.

13 April 2011

I can't find the original tweet, but this story is doing the rounds even now (from a tweet):

"It’s not often the London Fire Brigade turns up to a book launch party. Last night it was called out to bash a door down at Conville & Walsh offices in Soho as a guest had locked themself in the loo. The party was to launch S J Watson’s debut novel, Before I Go to Sleep..."

06 February 2011

For more on the party and the programme, including pics, see the blog of Keith B Walters here. Keith is one of two 'official bloggers' this year, organised by The Culture Vulture site in association with the festival. You can also keep up with Keith's commentary on twitter @keithbwalters.